My knitting sits languishing in a pile, silently pleading with me to sit down, relax and pick up the needles. But, alas, I have been busy experimenting with recipes from Trina Hanemann’s book Scandinavian Baking. My latest is her “Malted Rye With Mixed Seeds.” Oh my, quite delicious!

Slicing through these dense rye loaves can be a bit of a challenge (even with a wickedly sharp bread knife), for those of us with aging wrists and hands. 🙂 I realized I couldn’t eat these breads if Thor’s not home to slice the bread. Some of the photographs in Hahnemann’s book showed a slicer I remembered from my mormor’s kitchen. Ahhh, an easily resolution to my dilemma!

Meet the newest addition to my kitchen, a Raadvad bread slicer! I ordered this beauty through Per Wollesen’s Etsy store DanishRetroDesign. Per answered all my questions and reserved this slicer for a few days while I made up my mind. Soon after putting in my order, it was on its way to me. It arrived in excellent time.

It works beautifully and easily slices through the dense rye bread making the traditional thin slices. (Be sure and let your rye bread rest at least 24 hours before slicing. I sliced this loaf only 12 hours after I took it out of the oven because I just had to have it with breakfast!)

For those of you who have never seen one of these slicers (which haven’t been made in decades), it was designed by Ove Larsen, a graphic visual artist, who was commissioned in 1933 by the Raadvads Knivfabrikker (Raadvad Knife Works), now part of Fiskars. Note that if the bread slicer doesn’t have the name and the royal seal in relief on the metal arch above the blade, it is not a Raadvad but a copy. (Raadvads Knivfabrikker brought a copyright violation lawsuit against a Copenhagen ironmonger. In 1956 five of the seven Danish Supreme Court judges ruled in favor of the defendant ironmonger.)

I see it’s after 2 p.m. now. Time for me to make some espresso and slice rugbrødt. I’ll sit by my knitting pile.